Smart Talk

Smart Talk is a daily, live, interactive program featuring conversations with newsmakers and experts in a variety of fields and exploring a wide range of issues and ideas, including the economy, politics, health care, education, culture, and the environment. Smart Talk airs live every week day at 9 a.m. on witf’s 89.5 and 93.3.

Smart Talk Friday is a fast-paced program featuring thoughtful and engaging conversations about the politics, policy and people who are shaping Pennsylvania’s future. Host Matt Paul and witf Capitol Bureau Chief Mary Wilson invite your multimedia interaction before, during and after the program.

Radio Smart Talk: Top Stories of 2012 -- Paterno-Specter deaths

As part of witf’s Top Stories of 2012 series, Radio Smart Talk looks back at the lives and legacies of legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and Pennsylvania’s longest serving U.S. Senator Arlen Specter.

Paterno passed away at the age of 85 in January. He had been fired in November 2011 after coaching 61 years at Penn State. The Penn State Board of Trustees said the termination was for what they later called his lack of leadership after he allegedly learned that former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky had sexually molested young boys.

Paterno’s legacy was tarnished even more later in the year when former FBI director Louis Freeh’s investigation said Paterno was part of a cover up of Sandusky’s crimes.

Specter died in October – two years after he lost his re-election bid in the April 2010 primary to Congressman Joe Sestak. Political observers said Pennsylvania will never see a politician like Specter again.